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FL: Kissimmee to Discuss Domestic Partner Coverage for City Employees

scott — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:19:00 +0000

Kissimmee commissioners have a difficult road ahead when they consider whether to allow city employees to buy health insurance for their domestic partners, whether those partners are the same or opposite sex. The policy, if approved, would allow employees with domestic partners the same benefits their married counterparts already receive.

Commissioner Cheryl Grieb said the proposal is a health care and an equal rights issue, not one on whether gay people living together is right or wrong. We believe Grieb has the best interests of city employees at heart in this matter.

If such benefits were extended to employees’ domestic partners, there likely would be some added administrative costs – though minimal, we believe – as the city would have more paperwork to process. Plus, if the financial payout for claims were to rise dramatically due to the poor health of additional health plan members, costs for premiums could go up significantly for all involved. However, such a scenario is impossible to predict.

Full Story from Around Osceola
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FL: Legislature to Consider Domestic Partner Registry

scott — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Florida legislators were urged this afternoon to enact pro-family legislation creating a statewide domestic partnership registry. Once enacted, the legislation would provide unmarried couples many of the benefits provided by the state to married couples.

Palm Beach County Human Rights Council President Rand Hoch addressed legislators at the final public hearing prior to the opening of the Florida legislature in March.

“Many couples choose not to marry so that they may preserve their social security, pension, and veterans benefits,” said Rand Hoch, President of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.
“However marriage is not an option for gay and lesbian Floridians in committed relationships.”

Full Story from Out in America
Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

FL: County Preparing to Vote on Anti Discrimination Measure for Gays, Lesbians

scott — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:41:00 +0000

A proposal to change Leon County’s charter to add anti-discrimination protection for gays and lesbians moved forward Thursday. The county’s charter-review committee, which voted 10-3 in favor of the proposal, is expected to vote Feb. 11 on whether to move it on to public hearings and a vote by county commissioners. If approved, it would go to voters later this year.

Members of the committee debated whether the protections should take the form of a charter amendment or an ordinance. Some people in the gay community are concerned that if the measure goes to voters, it might not pass.

Ralph Mason, a member of the charter-review committee, proposed the amendment during a previous meeting. But he asked Thursday that it be taken up instead by the county’s human-relations advisory committee, which has been studying the issue.

Full Story from Tallahassee.com
Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

FL: South Miami Gives City Employees Domestic Partner Benefits

scott — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:14:00 +0000

When South Miami Mayor Horace Feliu and Commissioner Valerie Newman are on the same page, you know the issue transcends politics. At Tuesday’s meeting, most commissioners voted to allow city employees’ domestic partners, whether straight or gay, to enjoy the same benefits and rights an employee’s spouse would get.

Newman and Feliu co-sponsored the ordinance, with Vice Mayor Brian Beasley and Commissioner Lew Sellars voting in its favor. Commissioner Velma Palmer cast the lone vote against it. The benefits include hospital visitation rights and healthcare coverage.

Commissioners gave preliminary approval to the measure at their Dec. 8 meeting.

Full Story from the Miami Herald

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

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FL: Tampa Approves Expansion of Anti Discrimination Laws to Transgender Citizens

scott — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:01:00 +0000

On Thursday the Tampa City Council voted to expand anti-discrimination laws to include transgender individuals. The 5-1 vote came after two hours and more than 60 speakers spoke expressed their thoughts and feelings on the issue in what at times seemed to be a festival of hate and ignorance.

Before the meeting, the only drama in the room was who if any Council members would reverse their vote from two weeks prior, when they had voted unanimously to include gender identity and expression in the city’s human rights law, which would effectively prohibit workplace discrimination against people who change genders.

Councilman Charlie Miranda was the lone member who switched his vote and voted no. (Councilmember Linda Saul-Sena was absent). He seemed unsatisfied by the answers given by City Attorney Chip Fletcher about how the new law could avoid potential disruptions in the workplace before casting his dissenting vote.

Full Story from Creative Loafing: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2009/11/19/after-two-hours-of-ignorance-and-prejudice-tampa-city-council-appproves-transgendered-people-to-human-rights-ordinance/

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources.

Volusia County, Florida Councilman Wants to Pass Domestic Partner Ordinance

scott — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:38:00 +0000

When hospitalized with illness or injury, you decide who can visit, have access to your medical information and make decisions for you if you become incapacitated. That is, if you’re conscious when you arrive.

But if you are so injured or sick you cannot speak and haven’t drawn up a document naming a health care surrogate, only your next of kin will be afforded those rights. That’s the policy at five area hospitals in Volusia County, representatives for the facilities said Monday. That’s the policy at five area hospitals in Volusia County, representatives for the facilities said Monday.

For County Councilman Joshua Wagner, that’s not good enough. That’s because it means local unmarried couples — both gay and straight — could miss an important moment or be excluded from a decision that could change their lives forever, Wagner said. That could result because they lack a marriage certificate.

Full Story from the News-Journal: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02110309.htm

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

Tallahassee Offers Benefits to Domestic Partners of City Employees

scott — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Unmarried couples of whatever sexual orientation are now eligible to receive family benefits in Tallahassee, Florida, according to an Oct. 29 article posted at Tallahassee.com.

The change in city policy will being benefits to city employees who are in domestic partnerships and commonlaw marriages. Another change extends anti-discrimination and anti-harassment city policies to cover sexual identity and sexual orientation.

The article quoted the city’s human relations manager, Travis Parsons, as saying that the change amounted to much the same thing as when employees added to their families by other means. “It’s no different than adding new spouses or new children to their program.”

Full Story from Edge Boston: http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=98413

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

Court Case Tossed Out for Lesbian Denied Visit to Dying Partner in Florida Hospital

scott — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:21:00 +0000

In an illustration of the hazards that travel across state lines poses to gay and lesbian families who have no federal recognition and no nation-wide protections, a Washington woman whose partner succumbed to a stroke while on vacation says that she, and the women’s children, were denied visitation privileges even as the stricken woman lay dying in a Florida hospital.

A suit that followed the incident was tossed out of federal court on Sept. 29.

As reported at EGDE last February, Janice Langbehn, her partner of 17 years Lisa Marie Pond, and their children had traveled to Florida from Washington and were about to embark on a cruise from Miami when Pond collapsed, either from a heart attack or because of an aneurysm (media accounts have cited both).

Full Story from Edge Boston: http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=97026

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com with “subscribe blog” as the subject. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.